URGENT: Kill ACTA (2012-06-30)

On June 25th, the European Union Parliamentary committee voted to
reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). This signifies
a major blow to ACTA, but its standing in the EU still comes down to
the European Parliament vote scheduled for July 4th.

Help kill ACTA once and (hopefully) for all! Contact Members of
European Parliament today.

Stop software patents in Europe (2012-06-28)

The European Parliament will vote on July 4th 2012 for a regulation on
the unitary patent. This project could introduce software patents in
Europe.

April, which promotes and defend Free Software in France and Europe, is
proposing a set of amendments aiming to bring a legal certainty to the
regulation and to fix the political issue of the governance of the
European patent system.

You can help by calling Members of the European Parliaments (MEPs) in
order for them to vote these amendments.

Two job openings on the FSF campaigns team

The Free Software Foundation (FSF), a Massachusetts 501(c)(3) charity
with a worldwide mission to protect freedoms critical to the
computer-using public, seeks two motivated and organized
tech-friendly Boston-based individuals to be its full-time campaigns
managers.

We have been working hard the last several months to stop Restricted
Boot, a major threat to user freedom, free software ideals, and free
software adoption. Under the guise of security, a computer afflicted
with Restricted Boot refuses to boot any operating systems other than
the ones the computer distributor has approved in advance. Restricted
Boot takes control of the computer away from the user and puts it in
the hands of someone else. This is distinct from Secure Boot, where
the user has full control over the system.

Recently, two popular GNU/Linux distributions have announced their
plans to support Secure Boot. In this article, we review their plans,
and lay out our current strategy for addressing the threats and
difficulties posed by this new technology for the free software
movement. We find any approach that requires users to trust Microsoft
or any proprietary software company unacceptable, and urge
distributions to pursue other solutions.

Dear Microsoft: fsf.org is not a "gambling site" (2012-06-22)

We strongly suggest you avoid using proprietary "network security"
software from Microsoft. If you need to provide evidence to someone
else to illustrate why using such software is a bad idea, feel free to
use us as an example. If your workplace uses the software currently,
please point to this post and ask them to drop it. Proprietary
security software is an oxymoron -- if the user is not fundamentally
in control of the software, the user has no security.

If Microsoft's "reputation" database can't tell the difference between
a gambling site and an independently audited registered nonprofit
public-interest charity founded almost 30 years ago, it is certainly
doing you and your business more harm than good.

FSF's new operations assistant (2012-06-30)

Hello, I'm Chrissie Himes, the new operations assistant, and I'm
excited to officially be with the Free Software Foundation. I handle
sales, donations, and general office operations. I came to free
software via my interest, or rather, my frustration with the music
industry.

Emacs Reference mugs are back! (2012-06-21)

The GNU Emacs Reference mugs are back! These ceramic mugs feature a
two-color Emacs logo as well as a handy Emacs quick-reference guide.
Like our Emacs Reference cards, these mugs feature all the commands
needed to dive right into using Emacs.

Also, we have version 24 of the Emacs Manual coming out in print later
this summer. To make room we've discounted our older editions, version
22 and version 23.3, to $15 and $30, respectively.

I have some big shoes to fill (2012-06-12)

Joshua Gay is the new licensing and compliance manager at the FSF.

I'm sad to announce that I will no longer be able to work alongside
Brett Smith, who served as the FSF's licensing and compliance engineer
since 2007, but whom I first worked with at the FSF a decade ago when
we both were interns for a summer. Brett has moved on to work with the
World Wide Web Consortium and we wish him the best of luck! And, I
hope you will all wish me the best of luck as I am changing roles here
at the FSF. I am moving from campaigns manager to the newly
re-branded, "licensing and compliance manager."

Introducing our new copyright and licensing associate (2012-06-12)

Donald Robertson, III is the new copyright and licensing associate at the FSF.

My time at the Free Software Foundation over the past year and a half
has been split between handling copyright assignments and running
general office operations. Handling contracts with large corporations
and shipping packages of stickers and t-shirts was always sort of an
odd pairing for me. This was never an ideal situation, but rather the
result of us trying to do as much as we could with our resources.
During our winter fundraiser this past year, we asked you to help us
do more. Happily, the community took up this challenge and entrusted
us with more resources to better aid free software.

April 2012 Trip to Tunisia: Photos from Tunis and Monastir (2012-06-05)

Why games matter to free software and free culture

FSF member, GNU MediaGoblin maintainer and Liberated Pixel Cup
organizer Chris Webber writes on the importance of games in free
software, discussing everything from his personal motivations, to the
disturbing increase of proprietary and DRM-laden games and game
platforms targeting GNU/Linux.

LibrePlanet featured resource: Defective by Design

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.

For this month, we are highlighting the Defective by Design group,
which is a place for supporters of our campaign against DRM to share
materials they've created and participate in shaping new campaign
actions. Please stop by and help the fight against DRM -- especially
on ebooks!

Another event we'd like to draw your attention to is the 13th Libre
Software Meeting, in Geneva, Switzerland on July 7th. LSM is a
non-commercial cycle of conferences, round tables and practical
workshops based on Libre Software and its uses. Its aim is to provide
a platform for Libre Software users, developers and stakeholders.

Take action with the FSF

Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's
work. You can contribute by joining at http://www.fsf.org/join. If
you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some
rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email
signature like:

The FSF is also always looking for volunteers
(http://www.fsf.org/volunteer). From rabble-rousing to hacking, from
issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for
everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section
(http://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents,
DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.

#

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No
Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this
license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/ or
send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San
Francisco, California, 94105, USA.